Mobile tower helped Chicago cops during protests

It looks like a van with an attached cab topped by a camera

By Fran Spielman and Frank Main
Chicago Sun-Times

CHICAGO — A $227,064 "mobile surveillance tower" — hastily purchased by the city under a no-bid contract to take advantage of an expiring federal transit security grant — helped Chicago Police officers control roving crowds of demonstrators and provocateurs and protect Metra trains during the NATO summit, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

Manufactured by Dallas-based TerraHawk LLC, the patented technology is described in sole-source procurement documents as a "drivable mobile surveillance tower" that can be "deployed by one person" sitting inside the vehicle and "fully operational" within two minutes.